In March 2011, days after the space shuttle Discovery returned from its final mission, NASA's chief administrator held a summit of the agency's top 500 executives. The issue at hand: How should NASA, so long associated with travel to the moon and beyond, chart its path as the space shuttle era comes to an end? Charles Bolden faced a shrinking budget, pressure to enter commercial and international partnerships, and declining support from both the media and the public - a particularly difficult adjustment for NASA's 18,000 workers, who take considerable pride in their organization's history and stature. In this case, students take Bolden's perspective as he grapples with NASA's shifting mandate and uncertain future.

Professor Jick is a leading expert in Leadership and Organizational Change. He has had a long career of both academic and consulting work in this field, and he has built a pair of highly popular courses at CBS called "Organizational Change", and "Advanced Organizational Change." His textbook, Managing Change, has been the leading offering in the field for the last...